The Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society, Inc.

05/28/2026

See we told you it wasn’t the first time a Big Boy traveled on the Nickel Plate Road.

05/25/2026

Most times when delving into the Archives you might be after photos of Berkshires, Mikados, Geeps, cabooses and more so it can be easy to overlook the people that made everything happen on the railroad.

Today we uncovered this photo of a Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway conductor Frank Banard and his two sons who both joined the military during World War I. We do not know much more than that but is an interesting item of Nickel Plate Road history.

https://www.nkphts.org

05/23/2026

Congratulations to our friends at the Cincinnati Scenic Railway for completing the move of this former Nickel Plate Road express boxcar for future operation.

We can’t wait to see it in aluminum again!

05/19/2026

Welcome to Continental, Ohio!

Our next stop in our ongoing series tracing the route of Union Pacific Railroad Big Boy No. 4014’s trip east is also the first stop in Ohio for the massive locomotive. The Ohio edition of the Nickel Plate Road’s Along the Lines guidebook states that agricultural products were the main sources of railroad traffic for the small village. Industries included a vegetable packing company, Snyder Tile Company and the Raabe Grain Company.

https://archive.nkphts.org/index.php/browse/locations/ohio/continental-oh

It was also a popular spot for railfans of the Steam Era to catch trains taking on water. Here are photos of three famous engines at Continental known to any fan of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad.

No. 757 now undergoing a cosmetic restoration at the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum.

https://madrivermuseum.org/nickel-plate-road-757/

No. 765 owned and operated by Fort Wayne Railroad on the Indiana Rail Experience.

https://fortwaynerailroad.org/nickel-plate-road-no-765/

No. 767 was the locomotive used in the opening ceremony for the newly elevated line in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Was requested by the city for preservation but was badly damaged in a wreck so it swapped identities with No. 765.

https://www.nkphts.org/membership

05/15/2026

Continuing our tour of towns along the former Nickel Plate Road that Union Pacific Railroad Big Boy No. 4014 will make a stop at. Today we welcome you to Fort Wayne, Indiana!

Volumes have been written on Fort Wayne’s railroad history, many of it in over 60 years worth of NKPHTS publications, so here is a quick summary.

https://www.nkphts.org/publications

According to the Indiana volume of the NKP Along the Lines guide book George Washington regarded Fort Wayne as a vital crossroads that required control otherwise the entire West would be lost to the fledgling American government. Secured it was and the railroad companies would agree that Fort Wayne was and is a vital crossroads of commerce and industry.

The Nickel Plate Road’s key to staying competitive in the east-west railroad race was the precise operation of train CB-12, the highest priority train on the entire railroad. The first thing the NKP president saw on his desk at Cleveland Union Terminal tower was a report of whether CB-12 had run on time or not.

Company photographer Willis A. McCaleb arranged with the local passenger agent to stage these shots of the eastbound CB-12 at Fort Wayne along the Maumee River in April of 1958. S-2 No. 756 was in charge with caboose No. 1026 bringing up the markers. Two months later this shot was no longer possible as the famous Berkshires had been replaced by diesels. However there was talk of putting No. 767, (But was it actually?) in a downtown park…

Our friends at Fort Wayne Railroad can tell you the rest of that story. 😉

Explore the Nickel Plate Road in Fort Wayne at - https://archive.nkphts.org/index.php/browse/locations/indiana/fort-wayne

05/09/2026

On National Train Day we would like to report that Scranton, Pennsylvania is now Cleveland, Ohio in 1956.

05/06/2026

Today we’re going to highball highlighting every town along the former Nickel Plate Road that Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 will make a stop at. So here’s stop No. 1 Argos, Indiana.

72 years ago Nickel Plate Road No. 171 is working the local freight, known as the Argos Turn, in Argos, Indiana. After the arrival of the Alco PA passenger diesels the railroad’s 4-6-4 Hudsons found themselves on either standby duty for failed diesels or working local jobs like this one.

Here’s what the Indiana edition of Along the Lines, a series of informative booklets published by the Nickel Plate Road, had to say about Argos -

“ARGOS, named by Schuyler Colfax, Vice President of
the United States in the Grant administration, is principally a dairy farm community. In its early days it was a stage coach station on the old Michigan Road; today it is a crossroads where the Nickel Plate, and the Indianapolis and Michigan City Divisions cross.”

Further research reveals that Colfax was a congressman at the time of the naming of the town. He was a fan of Greek literature and so named the town Argos after Odysseus’s loyal pet dog.

Today Argos is still a railroad interchange point between Norfolk Southern and the Elkhart & Western short line’s Argos Branch which was once part of the IMC Division.

If you enjoyed this level of detail please consider signing up so as to experience our quartet magazine full of ever more detail historical articles on the New York, Chicago & St Louis Railroad.

https://www.nkphts.org/membership

05/05/2026

Look we know everyone is excited about Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 on the Nickel Plate Road this summer but we’ve also got something to look forward to in September.

The 2026 NKPHTS Convention shall take place in Findlay, Ohio September 25-27. There will be the usual speakers, special tours, model displays and banquet. However the main attraction will be a guided tour of CSX’s Intermodal Facility in North Baltimore, Ohio. Opened in 2011 this is one of the few intermodal yards in the state of Ohio.

Registration for the event is not open yet BUT we do suggest that you make your room reservation at the Findlay Inn sooner than later as our event coincides with Findlay University’s Homecoming Weekend.

Call 419-422-5682 and mention Nickel Plate Convention to get the special room rate.

Keep an eye on the official website for more details as they become available - https://www.nkphts.org/convention

04/29/2026

It happened once before a long, long time ago…

When the American Locomotive Company finished the first of Union Pacific Railroad’s “Big Boys” in 1941 delivery route had to be devised for the trip to Omaha, Nebraska. At that time, these articulateds were too heavy and oversized to be routed over the Nickel Plate Road.

Decades later, the Nickel Plate had continued its growth and infrastructure improvements, moving a 4-8-8-4 through Cleveland was no more than paying attention to whatever speed restrictions were required for the move.

The No. 4012 was built in November 1941 and retired in 1962. This 1964 move photographed at the 55th Street Yards in Cleveland, Ohio was to F. Nelson Blount’s original Steamtown in Bellows Falls, Vermont. No. 4012 was later moved to the National Park Service’s new Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania with the rest of the collection in 1984.

Small wonder then that Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have chosen to take Big Boy No. 4014 on its eastern tour via the the great New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad!

Photo by J. William Vigrass, Art Peterson Collection

Guide to the NKP mainline - https://www.nkphts.org/nickelplate

Official Schedule - https://www.up.com/about-us/history/steam/schedule

04/28/2026

Steam returns in a big way to the old Nickel Plate Road mainline this summer with the eastern leg of the highly anticipated nationwide tour of Union Pacific Railroad Big Boy No. 4014.

See all the details at the link below -

Union Pacific connects 23 western U.S. states, providing safe and efficient railroad transportation, freight shipping and logistics.